Description:

SCLC Rare Annual Convention Booklet

A bound printed booklet entitled “Summary of Ninth Annual Convention [of the] Southern Christian Leadership Conference,” an event which took place between August 9-13, 1965 in Birmingham, Alabama. Minor scuffs on the covers mentioned just for accuracy. Isolated printing smudges on a few pages. Else near fine. 40pp. 9.75” x 8.25.” Provenance: Ex-Dr. Jesse L. Douglas (born 1930), Dr. King’s close friend and fellow minister and Civil Rights activist. Douglas was instrumental in planning the Selma Montgomery March in March 1965. Dr. Douglas, who is an African American with albinism, was often misidentified by news agencies in photographs as a sympathetic “unidentified white man” appearing alongside black protestors.

The booklet reproduces the entirety of the “President’s Annual Report” delivered by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. (1929-1968) on August 11, 1965 (pp. 4-14). Dr. King served as the first president of the SCLC between 1957 and his 1968 assassination.

After reporting obligatory facts and figures related to organizational staffing and budgeting, Dr. King moved onto a summary of SCLC initiatives. This included voter registration, political and citizenship education, writing clinics, tutoring, and Operation Breadbasket (expanding blacks’ access to better and more jobs) and Operation Dialogue (encouraging communication between blacks and whites.) Dr. King evaluates the Voting Rights Act of 1965 on p. 10 and acknowledges its importance to the Civil Rights movement. He discusses ideas about poverty on p. 8 and 10-11 which would anticipate his 1967 book “Where Do We Go From Here: Chaos and Community” and the Poor People’s Campaign of 1968. Dr. King conceded that while recent acts of racially motivated violence, like the 1963 bombing of the 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, had complicated the SCLC pledge for non-violence, “I am still convinced that nonviolence is a powerful and just weapon. It cuts without wounding. It is a sword that heals” (p. 13)

Other excerpts of Dr. King’s address:

- “For the first time in American history the white majority as a whole learned how deeply injustice was woven into its fabric…The courage, sacrifice and unity of Negroes led inevitably to the creation of an alliance with white Americans and awoke the somnolent conscience of the nation” (p. 4)

- “It is a record of which we can all be proud and one that brings all of us closer to the goal of freedom. But we cannot rest contented on the laurels of past achievements. Bright yesterdays must be transformed into brighter tomorrows. With all the struggle and all the achievements, the plant of freedom has grown only a bud and not yet a flower. Negroes in 1965 are freer, but they are not free. Negroes in 1965 have more dignity and self-respect than they have known in their history, but they are still far from equal…So we still have a long, long way to go before we reach the promised land of freedom” (p. 8-9)

- “Let this affirmation be our ringing cry. It will give us courage to face the uncertainties of the future. It will give our tired feet new strength as we continue our forward stride toward the city of freedom” (p. 13)

This item comes with a Certificate from John Reznikoff, a premier authenticator for both major 3rd party authentication services, PSA and JSA (James Spence Authentications), as well as numerous auction houses.

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